#705: The Global Cold War: competing origin narratives

Preparation: #705

Connection to previous unit:

• Thinking back to the Responses to the Great Depression in our last unit, explain the differences between the Soviet (communist) and American (capitalist) worlds?

Overview:

• Soviet Union and the United States were two of the major 3 (with Britain) or 4 (with Britain and China) major allies during World War II.
• World War II led to the sharp decline – in ways violent and peaceful – of the remaining European empires. This left the Soviet Union and the United States as the world’s two “superpowers.”
• Both the Soviets and the Americans remained in Europe and East Asia after the war, laying the foundation for two competing “blocs.”​

Americans (First World)	Soviets (Second World)
​NATO (1949), SEATO (1954)	​Warsaw Pact (1955)
​Marshall Plan (1948)	​Molotov Plan (1947)

• By 1949, both sides had nuclear weapons, which held the two sides in check through M.A.D. (mutually-assured destruction). This was even more important for the Soviets than the Americans, because they never held the economic, political, or military advantage during the course of the conflict (despite impressive gains in the space race).
• Our key question today: Who was responsible for the start of the Cold War?
  
  

Document analysis:

We will divide the class into two teams: experts on documents A/B and C/D. Each team will evaluate their documents guided by the following questions. You may use this timeline (PDF), and, when confronted with questions that extend beyond the texts themselves, might consider utilizing online tertiary resources like Wikipedia.

Team A/B	Team C/D
Document A. The Iron Curtain Speech Sourcing: Who was Winston Churchill? Why would Americans trust what he has to say about the Soviet Union? Close reading: What does Churchill claim that the Soviet Union wanted?	​Document C. Soviet Ambassador Telegram Sourcing: Who was Nicholas Novikov? When did he write this telegram? Close reading: How does Novikov describe the United States? What evidence does he use to support his description? Context: What does Novikov claim the United States planned during the Second World War?
Document B. Truman Doctrine Close reading: Why did Truman believe Greece needed American aid in 1947? Context: What does Truman mean when he claims, “Should we fail to aid Greece and Turkey in this fateful hour, the effect will be far reaching to the West as well as to the East”? Close reading: Does Truman present American policy as offensive or defensive? What words or phrases does Truman use to present policy this way?	​Document D. Henry Wallace Letter Sourcing: Who was Henry Wallace? When did he write this letter? Close Reading: What is Wallace’s main argument? Corroboration: How does Wallace’s description of American foreign policy compare to Truman’s and Novikov’s?

Whole class discussion:

• Which of these documents do you believe is most trustworthy? Why?
• What other evidence would you need to strengthen your claim?
• Who was primarily responsible for the start of the Cold War? What evidence do you have to support your claim?